Regardless, and fully cognisant of the fact that admitting to even the slightest reticence to venture out in gale force winds with my kids will leave me open to being labelled ‘woke’ - or as my dear old dad used to say in less enlightened times, a big girl’s blouse - I shall press on.

I was fortunate enough that the game I was attending at the weekend, Motherwell’s defeat to Hearts on Sunday, was taking place about 100 feet from my front door, so bar the odd overturned wheelie bin and sporadic leaf tornadoes, I was able to get to the ground without too many scares.

And you know what? In the actual stadium itself, the conditions weren’t all that bad. The wind made the players look a bit daft now and again (at least that gave the lads in claret and amber an excuse this week), but it was a decent enough contest, and the outcome wasn’t affected in any way by the inclement weather.

(Image: Mark Runnacles / Shutterstock)

I can only imagine though that the drive across the M8 for the 4000 or so Hearts fans that made the trip to Lanarkshire was a little hairier than my own short commute. And it would be a similarly fraught journey for the 1600 or so Celtic fans who made their way in the opposite direction for their side’s lunchtime kick-off at Easter Road.

Now, it is perfectly understandable that clubs want games to go ahead as scheduled. They have sold tickets, flogged hospitality packages and bought pies for the snack bars. Every late postponement costs the host club thousands of pounds. Sometimes tens of thousands. Attendances drop off for rearranged midweek fixtures, and over and above that, the fixture list is already jam-packed as it is, so available dates to get postponed matches played fall into the hen’s teeth category.

But at the weekend, the Scottish Government had issued an Amber warning due to the wild weather that was battering the country. Police Scotland published the following advice: “The high winds mean there continues to be a high risk of disruption and police advice remains to consider whether your journey is really necessary or if it can be delayed until conditions improve.”

With gusts of 80mph pounding the central belt, chief amongst the concerns outlined by the authorities was the risk of flying debris, damage to buildings, power outages and major transport disruption.

When it comes to their teams, football fans are never the most rational. Their blind loyalty to the cause sees them endure all manner of inconveniences, expenses and hardships to follow their club. For the vast majority of them, if the game is on, then they will always see the trip as necessary.

Perhaps then, given the vested interests of the clubs and the risk-assessment faculties of supporters being clouded by their emotional attachment, the decision on whether they drive or take a bus across the country in conditions that are deemed by the authorities to be a potential threat to life shouldn’t be left up to them.

I don’t want to be overdramatic or encourage unnecessary intervention by the ‘Nanny state’. Tragically, though, there was loss of life across the country over the weekend due to the weather, with the conditions proving fatal to an unfortunate few.

A 60-year-old man was killed by a falling tree in Dumfries and Galloway, while a 20-year-old man was killed in similar circumstances in London and two women were also injured when the same thing happened in Aberfeldy. Another 20-year-old man and an 84-year-old man were killed in a three-car collision in Bathgate during the storm, though at the time of writing, the exact cause of the accident has yet to be determined.

(Image: Stuart Wallace / Shutterstock)

Mercifully, the thousands of football fans who drove across the country to attend matches seem to have come through those journeys unscathed, but that can only be chalked up to luck rather than judgement.

SPFL guidelines state that the ability of supporters, players, match officials and stadium staff to travel safely to and from venues are the decisive factor in determining whether fixtures can proceed. But I’d love to hear the reasoning as to how it was determined to be safe for the thousands of football fans who schlepped across the central belt on Sunday in particular, with that Amber warning in place, to do so.

These guidelines are too wishy-washy and open to interpretation. Let’s leave no room for doubt. If the government issues an Amber warning in an area where a match is due to take place, then players, staff and fans should not be expected to travel to the stadium. The game should be off.

With the increasing unpredictability and extremity of our weather, yes, that may well result in quite the fixture backlog. However, and maybe it’s just me getting soft in my middle age, but I’d much prefer that than a tragedy to occur and fans to lose their lives trying to get to a game of football.

There is an old cliché that is always aired whenever someone does lose their life at a match, that no one should go to the football and not come back. As if the act of going to a stadium was immune to the dangers that beset every other area of our everyday existence.

But if we really mean that, why are we expecting supporters to travel when the authorities are warning that doing so could put their lives at risk?